Eavesdropping on Barth

Daniel Sihombing, Geoff Thompson, Kylie Crabbe & Hillary Regan.

Last Saturday, several Pilgrim faculty and alumni attended the launch of Rev. Associate Professor Geoff Thompson’s new book, “Eavesdropping on Karl Barth: Occasional Essays” at Fairfield Uniting Church. Geoff was Pilgrim’s lecturer in systematic theology for many years and retired at the end of 2024.

Head of College, Kylie Crabbe, acted as MC for the afternoon while Daniel Sihombing officially launched with a speech noting the essays in the book and the contributions it makes. Daniel quoted from Benjamin Myers’ 2012 essay on Karl Barth’s reception in Australia, where he writes that “in 1934, Karl Barth threw a stone into the pond; the existence of the Uniting Church in Australia is one of the ripples in the water.”

Daniel spoke about the strong Christological centering in Barth’s theology, but one that calls for openness to the world and readiness to be disrupted and challenged, because the voice of Jesus Christ cannot be confined within the walls of the church or by a theologian like Barth himself.

The ten essays in  the book engage with many different issues, from postmodernism (ch.1), cultural crisis (ch.2), religious pluralism (ch.3), ecology (ch.4), post-truth (7), the politics of solidarity (ch.8), the role of experience in theology (ch.9), and, last but not the least, on reading Barth in Australia (ch.10).

You can buy the book at ATF Press – https://atfpress.com/product/eavesdropping-on-karl-barth/